Tony Wheeler's Travels

◄ With a group of friends we rented Castello Punta Ala in Tuscany, perched on a hilltop overlooking the marina of Punta Ala and looking west to the island of Elba (briefly Napoleon’s prison island) and south-west to Montecristo Island.

Writing a blurb line for Peter Fiennes’s book En Route (a literary trail around France) led me to his earlier book Footnotes (ditto for the British Isles) which introduced me to the remarkable Celia Fiennes.

I was sent a copy of Peter Fiennes wonderful literary exploration of France and asked to provide a quote: ‘The best books are always starting points, they inspire you to head out and read other books.

I’d learnt that the Orkney Islands is the correct term for those north Scotland Islands and I soon learnt that it’s the Isles of Scilly – not the Scilly Islands or the Scillies.

In Nigeria – Michael Palin visited Nigeria with a film crew to make a three-part TV series released in early 2024, so just before I was in Nigeria.

I’ve certainly been hitting the islands this year – Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling, out in the Indian Ocean off Australia and Indonesia.

In Part 1 of my Greenland travels I arrived in the capital Nuuk, it’s only a two hour flight from Iceland, and continued north across the Arctic Circle to Ilulissat, the iceberg tourist centre of Greenland.

▲ Yes dozy Don, also known as Taco Trump, the shambolic President of the USA does have bad intentions for Greenland.

The wildlife is often a big part of the travel experience.

▲ Approaching Athens Airport over Lemos – with my Greek Islands travel companion Nick Varian I’d flown into Athens and took a taxi to Piraeus ▲ Ferry activity in the port of Piraeus from the Hotel Mitsis N’U It’s the port for Athens and for most visitors…